Federal judges heard arguments challenging the federal healthcare overhaul law in an Atlanta courtroom Wednesday. Georgia is among 25 other states in the lawsuit. Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens says the law violates civil liberties because it would make people purchase health insurance.

Civil rights groups have filed an injunction to block a Georgia law that cracks down on illegal immigration. They’re asking a federal judge to halt the law before it goes into effect on July 1. The groups are also asking the judge to expedite a hearing on a class-action lawsuit filed last week.

A top Georgia lawmaker says he has an idea for how the state can get more water for its needs. House Speaker David Ralston is proposing a trade with Tennessee. In his idea, Ralston says Tennessee would get better connections to Georgia’s transportation links. In return, Georgia would get access to water from the Tennessee River.

A member of the South Carolina state ports authority board is urging people not to read too much into a new pair of political appointments. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley recently appointed two new members. Neither of them are from the Beaufort area, near Savannah.

Commissioners in coastal Glynn County appear to have put to rest a bitter, five-year-old controversy over the site of a jail expansion. The dipute began when commissioners proposed expanding the jail near the courthouse downtown. Business and civic leaders objected -- and eventually filed lawsuits -- to halt construction.

Georgia's Saxby Chambliss is joining 12 other US Senators in calling on Food and Drug Administration officials to relax seafood advice for pregnant women. The Senators say, the agency's guidelines to avoid fish because of mercury are not consistent with new federal dietary recommendations.